Simply transfering a videotape onto my computer

[mertz109]

Tech specs:
Gainward VIVO Ultra750XP: Geforce 4 (supports video in/out, my VCR is hooked into it)
120 GIG secondary Hard Drive formatted in NTFS
40 Gig primary HD formatted in FAT32
Windows 2000 operating system

Problems/Questions:
1) My understanding is that you need to "Movie Capture" a raw AVI file. For 2 hours of tape, that would be roughly 33 gigs (at 320x240 w/ 22khz, mono sound.) The file stops recording after 4 gigs. My understanding was that a system running Win2k and with a NTFS formatted HD would be able to create an unlimited sized file. Is the fact that my primary drive is FAT32 affecting this? Is there anyway I can get around this problem?

2) This graphics card streams in video beautifully. However, it doesn't give me any of the DV options. AND it complains, after capturing a movie, that no DV device is available (or something like that). It does capture everything, but it complains. Any idea how I can make it recognize my setup as a DV-capable card?

3) Really, my main goal is this: transfer two-hours worth of video from my VCR into files on my computer with the highest compression possible. My planned route was to capture the raw file than export it using the DivX 5.02 codec. Is this the best way? If not, can someone please tell me the best way to do this?

Thank you!

 

[dimoj]

Hi Mertz

I can only help you with question 1:

It is definately the Fat32 that is limiting your captures to 4GB there is some information here about that:

http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/100d2.htm

DivX seems to be a pretty high quality Codec in my experience but I'm not an expert.

 

[EdwardMartinIII]

Mertz,

Make sure that you are capturing to your NTFS drive. It definitely sounds as if you're attempting capture to the FAT drive. If I were trying to get around it, and I had already specified that the destination drive was the NTFS drive, I'd try re-installing the video capture application on the NTFS drive so that basically, there was nothing video-related on the tiny drive.

The best way to export your video depends on your personal tastes. The way I see it, you have two goals:
a, get the video on the hard drive
b, compress the video into something small file-size-wise, but that still looks good enough for my purposes.

Get "a" done first.

Then, experiment with different codecs and compressions until "b" is done to your satisfaction. I stress experiment because it really does vary based on the content and your own tastes.

Experiment with small pieces, though -- save yourself the headache. 8)

Good luck!
Edward

"Cut a hole in the door. Hang a flap. Criminy, why didn't I think of this earlier?!" -- inventor of the cat door

 

[mertz109]

Thank you for the responses last night.

I had been saving to my NTFS drive before, but I decided to be double-sure and convert my 40 gig drive to NTFS. Now both drives are NTFS. However, I'm still getting capped at exactly 4,194,337 KB. Any thoughts?

 

[EdwardMartinIII]

Um... Are you capturing using Premiere, or some piece of software that came with the card?

Cheers,
Edward

"Cut a hole in the door. Hang a flap. Criminy, why didn't I think of this earlier?!" -- inventor of the cat door

 

[GEAK]

As one or two people have pointed out, FAT32 does have a 4 gb file size limitation but you've already reached the conclusion that FAT32 isn't the problem.

The original AVI file specification set a limitation on the size of an AVI file. That limitation was also set at 4 gb. Some capture programs and some codecs will not allow you to create a file larger than 4 gb however Adobe Premiere is not one of these. I'm pretty sure that the "full frames uncompressed" setting in most capture applications does have the 4 gb cap.

I'm interested in finding out where you got those numbers: "For 2 hours of tape, that would be roughly 33 gigs (at 320x240 w/ 22khz, mono sound.)" because they sound awfully high. Are you capturing DV? I've captured numerous long files (using DV type 1 & 2) and I find they average 12.5 gb per hour. That, by the way, is 720x480 @ 29.97 fps & 48kHz stereo.

Check to see if you can select a codec when you do your captures or if you're stuck with using a proprietary codec. If you can change it to Microsoft-DV (or any other DV for that matter), you'll probably solve the problem.